Polymeric materials are important materials in a variety of applications, in which the classic materials such as metals, ceramic and wood are no longer sufficient due to their restricted physical properties. Polymeric materials have therefore achieved a broad variety of applications not least due to the fact that the properties may be modified by varying the monomeric units. A particularly fascinating class of polymeric materials developed in recent years are the so-called shape memory polymers (in the following named “shape-memory polymers, SMP or SMP-materials”), i.e. polymeric materials which may remember one or even a plurality of shapes in memory, whereby selected changes in shape may be initiated by external stimuli, such as a change in temperature Such materials are, for example, described in the Intentional Patent Applications WO-A-99-42528 and WO-A-99-42147. A drawback of the thermoplastic materials described there is however that after a repetition of several cycles of shape amendments no exact recovery of the initial shape is achieved. Furthermore, these materials known from the prior art do show, due to irreversible creep processes during repeated shape amendments, a certain “wearout”, so that desired physical properties are lost in the course of several cycles.
It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide polymeric materials overcoming the drawbacks of the prior art. The polymeric materials in accordance with the present invention furthermore should enable the possibility that by simple variation of the composition a regulation of the properties is enabled whereby materials having a desired profile of properties can be obtained.